Since January, I have been puzzled by the reporting from all agencies and media that the explosion shown in the video below involved a fuel oil tank. I have been intimately involved with fire/explosion investigations for many years. I have never seen a type of fuel oil stored in an atmospheric storage tank under any type of conditions behave like that. I am very confident that what we are witnessing in the video is a HIT (Heat-Induced Tear) of a process vessel used in the making of the fuel. Here is the video and my observations; I have inquired with the MS State Fire Marshal’s office regarding this event and will update this posting with any facts that I obtain. My observations regarding the video footage below:
BLEVE or Diesel Tank HIT?